Shape of Time Review

Kubler's "The Shape of Time" he discusses the difficulties that biographers of artists have to face and the different ways to compare artists. He believes that writing about an artist's life solely through biography doesn't do a good job in being able to understand the art and the messages behind it. He believes art that an artists creates changes throughout their life. Only having "one entrance" about an artist means that the author will skip over important information in order to just summarize their life rather than take a deeper look into the art. He believes that it is very difficult to determine if one artist is greater than another because there are so many different ways an artist becomes who they are. He says "talent is a predisposition", which I agree with because a lot of artists are born with this talent that will lead them to greatness, their painting or sculpting might come more natural to them then the next person. Their talent is hard to judge from person to person because I believe that their messages and ways they developed their talent is so unique and different from artist to artist that its hard to compare their work. Kubler believes that there are a lot of factors that effect talent such as, "physical energy, durable health, powers of concentration, are a few of the gifts of fortune with which the artist is best endowed". He looks at the life of an artist to see what events were going on that could have affected their art at the current time. I believe that it is important to look at an artist's life because it makes a huge impact on their art, they take their struggles, successes, good times, and bad time and try to create a story or a narrative to express their feelings. Reading a biography of an artist can really help someone understand the art but people should be aware that it is just a summary of their life, rather than an analysis into a specific part of their life.